Shut Up, Wesley!
I picked up Seasons 1 and 2 of Star Trek TNG at a charity shop, and my god are these early episodes painful. I'm at the end of season 1 and it's starting to pick up a bit.
The special effects still hold up pretty well. They've been enhanced somewhat for the Blu-ray but not completely redone like the TOS episodes. The Stargazer episode looks great!. The props, on the other hand look extremely cheap. Some of the stories though, are awful.
And what is bitching about Star Trek Season 1 without complaining about everyone's favourite whipping Boy Genius, Wesley.
To be fair, the character suffered a bit by being too important too often. Justice - where he is sentenced to death for treading on the grass was originally going to be a very different episode, focussing on generic crewman being sentenced for killing someone in self defence. Perhaps this would have been forgiven, but it had to be Wesley saving the day in The Naked Now, Datalore, The Battle and probably a couple of others. This is why he got the Mary Sue reputation. Having Gene Rodenberry's middle name didn't help here.
When Wesley was actually in a position that makes sense for a 15 year old to be in, he was much less objectionable. In When the Bough Breaks, he and a bunch of kids are abducted. He's the one who the kids turn to as a leader. And it works fine. He's the oldest kid. Old enough to understand what's going on. It's established he's smart. He even comes across as quite likeable. Again, in Coming Of Age, he's taking an entrance exam. He's concerned about the psych test. This is the first time he's actually shown to have any flaws or insecurities, and I actually feel for the kid.
He's still not a great character. And I do wonder if it might have worked a little better if they went with the idea of a female character instead. A few scenes just seem to fit the behaviour of a 15 year old girl more than a boy.
A lot of the time things are simply weird. Deanna Troi's wedding announcement is presented by a talking treasure box! It's often painfully preachy even by Star Trek standards. Symbiosis has a designated "drugs are bad, m'kay" dialog with Wesley. Sometimes it's simply awful. Some of the episodes feel very TOS like.
Season 1 doesn't contain the worst episodes of TNG, but it certainly has a pretty low average quality. There are some episodes with nice ideas, although these are sometimes squandered. I doubt it would have made it to season 2 if it wasn't Star Trek, and that would have been a shame. In later seasons we get some excellent episodes, and the main cast develop into much more developed characters. It is fun seeing these early episodes despite the often poor quality.
I've since received seasons 3, 4 and 5, and am looking forward to getting to these.
This entry was originally posted at https://luckykaa.dreamwidth.org/639704.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
The special effects still hold up pretty well. They've been enhanced somewhat for the Blu-ray but not completely redone like the TOS episodes. The Stargazer episode looks great!. The props, on the other hand look extremely cheap. Some of the stories though, are awful.
And what is bitching about Star Trek Season 1 without complaining about everyone's favourite whipping Boy Genius, Wesley.
To be fair, the character suffered a bit by being too important too often. Justice - where he is sentenced to death for treading on the grass was originally going to be a very different episode, focussing on generic crewman being sentenced for killing someone in self defence. Perhaps this would have been forgiven, but it had to be Wesley saving the day in The Naked Now, Datalore, The Battle and probably a couple of others. This is why he got the Mary Sue reputation. Having Gene Rodenberry's middle name didn't help here.
When Wesley was actually in a position that makes sense for a 15 year old to be in, he was much less objectionable. In When the Bough Breaks, he and a bunch of kids are abducted. He's the one who the kids turn to as a leader. And it works fine. He's the oldest kid. Old enough to understand what's going on. It's established he's smart. He even comes across as quite likeable. Again, in Coming Of Age, he's taking an entrance exam. He's concerned about the psych test. This is the first time he's actually shown to have any flaws or insecurities, and I actually feel for the kid.
He's still not a great character. And I do wonder if it might have worked a little better if they went with the idea of a female character instead. A few scenes just seem to fit the behaviour of a 15 year old girl more than a boy.
A lot of the time things are simply weird. Deanna Troi's wedding announcement is presented by a talking treasure box! It's often painfully preachy even by Star Trek standards. Symbiosis has a designated "drugs are bad, m'kay" dialog with Wesley. Sometimes it's simply awful. Some of the episodes feel very TOS like.
Season 1 doesn't contain the worst episodes of TNG, but it certainly has a pretty low average quality. There are some episodes with nice ideas, although these are sometimes squandered. I doubt it would have made it to season 2 if it wasn't Star Trek, and that would have been a shame. In later seasons we get some excellent episodes, and the main cast develop into much more developed characters. It is fun seeing these early episodes despite the often poor quality.
I've since received seasons 3, 4 and 5, and am looking forward to getting to these.
This entry was originally posted at https://luckykaa.dreamwidth.org/639704.html. Please comment there using OpenID.